Syracuse, N.Y. -- He'd spent so much of his evening, chin in hand, in a kind of resigned repose. This, because the man just . . . knew.

When Jim Boeheim is feeling it along the sideline, when he realizes his Orange is in a fight it can win, he snarls and snorts, screams and stomps. But there are those other nights when the Syracuse University basketball coach understands the folly of all that.

The guy has coached nearly 1,100 games in parts of four decades at SU and has won 799 of them, so he can recognize inevitability when he sees it. And on Friday evening at FedExForum in Memphis, Tenn., Boeheim was staring inevitability in the face. So, he dialed it down, working his shrug on the bench more than any strategy.

After a while he'd apparently determined that the Orange was simply not going to beat the Oklahoma Sooners in that third-round affair in the NCAA Tournament. Not with all those Syracuse clangs from afar. Not with Blake Griffin in full bestial mode wearing the other uniform. Not with the OU shooters, specifically Tony Crocker and his career-high 28 points, looking more like so many William Tells with crossbows.

Oklahoma was leading by 27, by four touchdowns, with 15 minutes to play, for crying out loud. And so, Boeheim turned off the grill. He was done. His club was done. His 33rd season on the SU bridge was done. All that was left to do was to watch the clock tick away.

And then, of course, to assess.

The Associated Press/Matt SlocumAs it happened on Friday night at FedExForum in Memphis, this turned out to be a familiar pose assumed by Jim Boeheim, who knows a looming defeat when he sees one.

"I think, overall, this team has played well," Boeheim said after the final horn had ended things at 28-10 and in the Sweet 16. "If you look at our entire year, we were picked eighth in our league. We weren't in the Top 25, preseason. (Four) weeks ago, we weren't in the Top 25 in the country. So you just have to let the facts speak for themselves."

Those facts loudly suggest that the Orange, which had lugged back-to-back NIT berths into November, cobbled together a fine, fine campaign. There was all that unpleasant business with Eric Devendorf in December, sure. And there were those seven losses in 10 starts over those 40 days and 40 nights in January and February. And there was the odd mid-season banishment of Kristof Ongenaet, plus the lack of depth pretty much from November soup to March nuts.

But overall, there can't be too many serious complaints, can there? Who can have a beef with a squad that makes it into the second weekend of the NCAA Tournament? How can someone have much of an issue with SU, which now shares the same falling-just-short-of-the-Elite-Eight fate as the likes of such college iron as Duke and Kansas and Memphis?

"We lost five games against teams that are still playing in this Tournament," Boeheim said late on Friday. "At Connecticut. At Pittsburgh. At Villanova. Louisville. And Villanova at home. We lost five games, and that could knock anybody out of the box. And our team did not let that happen."

No, the Syracuse outfit pulled through that rough patch, winning nine of its next 10 contests -- including the magnificent six-overtime conquest of UConn in the Big East Tournament -- leading into that FedExForum date with Oklahoma. But upon arrival, the tangibles of Griffin and Crocker, coupled with intangible of SU's inelegant shooting, ensured that would be the end of the Orange road.

And, oh, it was abrupt.

Plainly, one can not overstate the majesty of Griffin, a dented dominator who did as he wished in OU's 84-71 triumph en route to 30 brutish points (on just 15 field-goal attempts), 14 rebounds and one large bruise on Jonny Flynn's lower back. Nor can anybody run from the reality that SU, which does have its marksmen, managed just eight baskets outside of the lane.

That mix of too much Griffin (and Crocker) on the one side and too little steady aim on the other pretty much explains why Boeheim's chin found Boeheim's hand, hard by the Mississippi River.

The future? There are those close to the program who insist that Flynn, Devendorf and Paul Harris -- like Ongenaet, the departing senior -- may all be headed out the door, even though each steadfastly, and not surprisingly, denied as much last weekend.

For some reason, this kind of conjecture peeves Boeheim, who -- after presiding over a team that dug a 27-point hole in the first 25 minutes of that team's most important game of the season -- chose on Friday to call somebody else an idiot. This, with the cameras rolling.

But conjecture is part of the Division I deal, and in the case of the Syracuse bunch it is not necessarily an unpleasant exercise. Not with Scoop Jardine, Wes Johnson, DaShonte Riley, James Southerland and Brandon Triche loosening up even now in the wings. Not with Rick Jackson, Mookie Jones, Kris Joseph, Arinze Onuaku, Andy Rautins and Sean Williams all scheduled to return with or without Flynn and/or Devendorf and/or Harris.

Uh huh, under Boeheim whose average year over these 33 years has been a stunning 24-9 -- and has he spoiled the fan base, or what? -- the Orange doesn't rebuild. No, it reloads. And, if need be, it will do so again in Year No. 34, which will begin in just 7 1/2 months.

By which time, of course, the sting of that loss to Oklahoma may have faded.

"If Griffin hadn't gotten hurt," Boeheim said of the OU star's late-season concussion, "they would have been a No. 1 seed, which would have been good for us. We wouldn't have had to play them."

Alas, the Orange, which couldn't duck the Sooners, was quickly decked by them. And so, a chin slipped into a hand as the clock ticked away.

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(Bud Poliquin's column, his "To The Point" observations and his on-line commentaries appear virtually every day on syracuse.com. Additionally, his work appears regularly on the pages of The Post-Standard newspaper. E-mail: bpoliquin@syracuse.com.)